An early warning system for inflation using Markov-Switching and logistic models approach

With the adoption of the inflation targeting by the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) in 2000, the average inflation radically went down. Earlier 2000, the inflation rate was recorded at 8.8% that is January 1999; then a year later went down to 2.65%. What’s more, this paper builds up an early warning system (EWS) model for predicting the event of high inflation in South Africa. Periods of high and low inflation were distinguished by utilizing Markov-switching model. Utilizing the results of regime classification, logistic regression models were then assessed with the goal of measuring the likelihood of the event of high inflation periods. Empirical results demonstrate that the proposed EWS model has some potential as a corresponding instrument in the SARB’s monetary policy formulation based on the in-sample and out-of-sample forecasting performance.